Long COVID in Populations With Serious Mental Illness: Clinical and Policy Implications

As the world recovers from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic with ongoing plans for a strengthened behavioral health infrastructure-from crisis services to long-term care-one of the health conditions that has emerged is long COVID. This multisystem condition is characterized by persistent symptoms that develop after the acute phase of COVID-19 infection. Although the full clinical and scientific understanding of long COVID's neuropsychiatric impact is still evolving, a sizable cohort of patients has emerged with various long-term and often confusing symptoms, which can include cognitive impairment, mood dysregulation (e.g., anxiety or depression), sleep disturbances, posttraumatic symptoms, and chronic fatigue. Recognizing long COVID's debilitating impact on quality of life and wide-ranging societal consequences, the authors sought to summarize current knowledge about long COVID among individuals with a preexisting serious mental illness and to propose care and treatment recommendations for clinicians and public policy makers.